How do I relax?

It's Robert's challenge, so it's only fair that I should copy him and go for music as my relaxation method of choice. 10 smartie points for the first person to name all the albums!

A view from the home!

I may be using an element of poetic license here with Robert's photo challenge, because it said a view from in your home. The top photo was taken from my garden, so that's pretty close isn't it?
This was taken from my conservatory so technically that's in my home. It's not the squirell as such that's significant, just wildlife in general. We live in the middle of a big city, but we still get Squirrels and foxes and a fantastic selection of birds. So I give you my 2 favourite views from my house.

Sentimental Object

Harry
Katie

Front Door

It's not much of a front door but it's the only one I've got.

Kitchen

The cooker hood, proudly fitted by myself, and before Quilly says anything it's the photo that's crooked!













The oil burner, used more often after I've been cooking




Can you spot the odd one out?

Mail Box?

Robert over at http://thoughtsofafather.blogspot.com/ is hosting a photo challenge, today it's a photo of your mail box. If you want to join in, or find out what the rest of the photo challenges are, head over to see him. The red one is where I post my mail, it's at the top of our street, the tatty brass one is where my mail gets posted, you may see more of this later in the week.

Lazy blogging

I do have breaks from blogging occasionally, but I still take photographs. This one was taken in February this year at Paull, looking out onto the River Humber. I think it has an eerie quality.

Tall trees

Took these at Dalby Forest last week

Still not functioning fully, hopefully will get back to some sense of normality at the weekend.

1st day at school

I haven't got any image manipulation tools on my new computer yet, so this is a little pale. What with work and family commitments it is going to take me a while to get back to normal, bear with me.

Fun

We went to FlamingoLand recently, it's not just for kids you know!

Bubble

I loved the colours on this.

I've found a way!

The final word on bridges, yes it was Quilly's idea, but I couldn't resist posting this, taken in Whitby less than 2 weeks ago. I watched in admiration as the lady you see climbed her way up there. The ship is called the Grand Turk.

Coming soon...

I've just got a new computer and my old modem isn't compatible with Windows Vista. So I may be off line for a couple of days. When I come back I will visit all my new friends, as well as all of my old ones. In the meantime, thank you all for your lovely comments on my bridges, what's the next challenge?

The final 2 bridges

Top one is the bridge over Barmston drain in Hull, the other one is in the beautiful village of Thornton le Dale. Notice the kids feeding the ducks.

Whitby harbour bridge

This bridge opens frequently to let marine traffic through, it also happens to be the main road through Whitby, and nobody seems to mind.

Beggar's Bridge

This is Beggar's Bridge near Glaisdale in North Yorkshire, it was built in 1619, if you wish to know more about it's history go here http://www.billspics.cambsnet.co.uk/beggars_bridge.htm

It's only a bridge

I drove under this yesterday as I often do, and I frequently drive over it, as do lots of other people. I remember it being built, and I also remember the ferries that used to get us from one side to the other. I now take it for granted, as I suspect most people who live in the area do, which is a shame. It may no longer be the world's biggest single span suspension bridge, but it's still pretty awesome. Oh and by the way, a friend of Quilly's has a post a picture of a bridge thing going, so if you're interested or intrigued, go to http://iwasborn2cree8.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-photo-challenge.html

Vista '08

We went to the inaugral Vista festival yesterday, or Prinny Ave street fest to the less posh of you. It was a pleasant experience without being over exciting, lots of free balloons for the kids, and fortunately sunshine too, well it was when we were there. We had a very nice meal and drink in the garden area of The Lounge and the kids got face painted (see below). But the highlight was surely winning a KCFM mouse mat for identifying the intro to Rubber Bullets by 10cc. I also recognised Sugar Baby Love by the Rubettes, but wasn't owning up to that one. The only down point of the day was forgetting my camera so I couldn't record the event for posterity.

Tigers Tigers burning bright

In honour of Hull City's excellent start to life in the premiership, we've turned the kids into tigers.

View

This is a view from the track that lead to our cottage.

Crabs

Some of you may recognise wifey in this pic, I couldn't believe how many people were trying to catch crabs.

Bizarre

We've been going to the same cottage on the same farm for about 5 years now for our Summer holidays, so naturally we didn't expect anything different when we turned up this year. A 40 foot inflatable bouncy castle certainly threw us, but the kids enjoyed it.

Where have I been?

In answer to Quilly's question, I haven't been anywhere, well no where out of the ordinary anyway, I guess I just ran out of things to say and photo's to post. I also have a small confession to make, I have been seeing someone else, the brazen hussy that is known as Facebook. I have to be honest with you, I am still seeing Facebook, but the attraction is wearing off and I am slowly being attracted back to blogger. Those of you who have been true to blogger, I do not deserve you, but I'm glad you're still around, I guess you'll all just have to get used to the fact that I'm a two-timing no good cheating tart, but enough of my good points.......

It's all water under the bridge

What's Gawpo going on about?

As well as the birds and fishes below, I spotted these three happy punters as well.

Rock pooling

We've been to the seaside, Filey to be precise. The top picture is a Dunlin (I think), the middle picture is a Curlew and the thing that looks like an eel in the bucket is actually a butter fish. It was a bit cold at first with a wind coming off the sea, but it soon warmed up, and a great time was had by all.

Fruity

Louisiana mentioned fruity recently, here he is chewing a dandelion leaf. Don't ever let it be said you don't get excitement on this blog.

They grow up so quickly.

Joke

A senior citizen drove his brand new BMW convertible out of the car salesroom. Taking off down the motorway, he floored it to 90mph, enjoying the wind blowing through what little hair he had left. 'Amazing!' he thought as he flew down the M40, enjoying pushing the pedal to the metal even more. Looking in his rear view mirror, he saw a police car behind him, blue lights flashing and siren blaring. 'I can get away from him - no problem!' thought the elderly nutcase as he floored it to 110mph, then 120, then 130mph.
Suddenly, he thought, 'What on earth am I doing? I'm too old for this nonsense!' So he pulled over to the side of the road and waited for the police car to catch up with him. Pulling in behind him, the police officer walked up to the driver's side of the BMW, looked at his watch and said, 'Sir, my shift ends in 10 minutes. Today is Friday and I'm taking off for the weekend. If you can give me a reason why you were speeding that I've never heard before, I'll let you go.' The man looked very seriously at the policeman, and replied, 'Years ago, my wife ran off with a policeman. I thought you were bringing her back.' 'Have a good day, Sir,' said the policeman.

The things you do for your kids

The kids went to see Alvin & the Chipmunks at the cinema a while ago so naturally when they saw it advertised on video, they wanted it. We had seen it advertised at £9.99 at Morrisons so headed off there to get it, but they had sold out, now 4 year olds don't really understand the concept of "sold out" so naturally Harry became upset, crying and wailing. As a parent, what do you do?, yes you head off to the next supermarket, knowing you will have to pay more, but the kids will be happy. So off we go to the next supermarket, ASDA, promising Harry that he will get his Alvin & the Chipmunks DVD, no problem. Except ASDA have also sold out, cue more wailing and screeching. So, as a parent, what do you do?, yes, you head to the biggest of all the supermarkets, Tesco's at St Stephen's knowing they must have it in stock, and you tell Harry that they will have it, no problem. You arrive at Tesco's and you park up, I get out of the car, no point in all of us going, and I actually find myself running, which is crazy, because they will have loads left. I get into the store and go up the escalator and head for the DVD section, and there in front of me is the one remaining copy of Alvin & the Chipmunks, but then I notice the little girl in the wheelchair slowly stretching up, so as a parent, what do you think I did?

Boing

Did the kids enjoy their new trampoline?, see what you think

Where?

We saw this sign at Dalby Forest recently and Harry was very disappointed that there weren't any frogs crossing. have you ever noticed that, when you see a sign it usually means you won't see something. When was the last time you went past a sign on the road with a deer on it and then saw one?. Anyway, we did see some mating toads, which I guess is close, and it was interesting to see the difference between frog spawn and toad spawn. This weekend, if the weather is fine we will be putting up an 8 foot trampoline in the garden, hopefully it will come with an 8 foot ladder to get on it.

Hornsea

The kids had fun and Dad gets to play with his camera.

We went to the seaside but the natives weren't too friendly.

and the kids love it.

The snow does make everywhere look nice though, these houses are opposite ours, that's the posh side of the street.

It's no joke

This is our back garden, we got the table out last weekend, in case Easter weekend was nice!

You want to complain

I must apologise for not posting much, but the weather has been awful recently, so no day trips, and therefore no photos. I've also got a temporary new job dealing with complaints and boy do people know how to complain. Still it's the Easter weekend, so 4 days off, but the forecast aint good.

Daddy's Gone

We like this a lot at the moment.

It's a boy thing

I taught him everything.

Gulls

On Sunday we went to the local park to feed the ducks, but they were outnumbered by the gulls and pigeons, so we fed them instead.

Kids tell it like it is

Wifey was away at the weekend, went to a hen weekend in Birmingham. The first meal I cooked for Harry at his request was hot dogs, but he refused to eat them as they weren't like mummy makes them. On Sunday I cooked a fantastic omelette for lunch, I asked Katie what she thought, she replied,"it's ok but mummy would've done it better". Thanks kids.

The tortoise and the cat

So, the tortoise comes out of hibernation and immediately takes up residence on the cats cushion, what's a cat to do?

Humber

For those of you who know the Humber as a dirty brown river, here's an alternative view.

Bittern yay!

Whilst away I saw my first Bittern, it's only taken me 25 years to0 see one.

Where you been boy?

I have been to a dark place, but I return fitter and healthier. So the blog is back, leaner and hungrier and wifey has been dumped (not literally) for showing no interest whilst I was "away". If for some strange reason you wish to comminicate with wifey you will find her on facebook if you look hard enough (me too for that matter).

Berry good

As I was walking past this tree it said photograph me, so I did.

Snow

We had some snow the other day.

Sparrer

An English House Sparrow that requires no CSIing, but I think it's the opposite sex to Gawpo's. Some of you may wonder what the hell I'm going on about, wifey often asks that.

PIG

I know I haven't been posting much lately, but hey, it's quality. Took this today on a day trip to Sewerby Hall

Feed the ducks

The thing with lakes and ponds is they usually have ducks on them, and if Harry sees ducks he has to feed them. It has got to the point where we have to keep a loaf of bread in the boot of the car, just in case. If the top 3 ducks in the picture are Mallards, does anyone know what the one at the bottom is?